Monday, September 14, 2009

Bonneville buying KMOX ... nah!


I usually never say never, but in this case, I say never.  The rumors are flying around, but I'd put fitty cent on it that Bonneville will not buy KMOX, even in the unlikely event CBS was willing to sell this legendary gold mine. CBS has, however, made it clear that KYKY and KEZK could be picked off the grapevine if the dollars were right.

There's a distinct possibility that Bonneville is interested in picking up some or all of Citadel's (formerly ABC) stations and that would keep them tied up for a while. That would have nothing to do with our market.

Why not KMOX

Bonneville's local management hasn't a single clue about running a non-music station.  That's pretty clear from the way they've mismanaged and malprogrammed ESPN101 over the past nine months.  KMOX generates a huge amount of profit.  If you were Bonneville buying KMOX from CBS would you turn such a dollar printing press over to the idiots-in-residence at The Palace Near Ballas?

Didn't think so.

However (and there's always a however in life), if Bonneville offered a bag of money to the shareholders at KTRS, I'd be willing to bet that a sufficient number of them would bail, leaving Bonneville with a MLB franchise on a pretty decent AM signal that they could transfer to their sports FM.

Would anyone at The Palace know what to do with it?

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